Most of you will probably have checked out, if not regularly used, the Writer Beware site (http://www.sfwa.org/beware/). For those of you who haven't, it's an incredibly valuable source of information on just about every aspect of publishing from a writer's point of view. Specifically, it keeps abreast of the latest scams and cons from unscrupulous agents and publishers. It also provides tons of information on e-publishing (and e-piracy), manuscript assessment services, vanity publishers and loads more.

Writer Beware is run by a committee of the Science Fiction Writers of America. They have several ongoing, active, investigations (and it's worth checking out the lists of companies they're keeping track of in the 'Thumbs Down' lists on the site).

They've asked SFWA members to help them by letting writer friends know about their website and services. I'm very happy to do this, and want to make the point that the SFWA, and the SF world in general, provides many useful services to writers; and not just SF writers -- the information at Writers Beware applies across the genre board.

Without making comparisons with other writers' associations, I greatly admire the openness and generosity of the SFWA. For instance, you don't have to be a member to contact Writer Beware with contract or other queries. They will also provide electronic copies of their scam warning handouts to any writers' conferences; so if you're attending as a guest, you could suggest this to the convention committee (just give Writers Beware two weeks' notice).

Terry

Great Terry.

I think their homepage link is a bit funny, so if everyone goes to the 'general' page and navigates from there, the link below should work:

http://www.sfwa.org/beware/general.html

JB (think it needs the .html at the end)

Thanks JB.